Soft openings, hard lines

Is it fair to review a new eatery as soon as they start taking money? Photograph: Jupiter images/Getty Images

I know that most people who read Word of Mouth actually have a life, but I also know that there are a lot of you who, like me, spend a great deal of their time avidly following news of soon-to-open restaurants. Whenever I'm travelling around the country the sight of any retail space being refitted as a restaurant is enough to make me feel a little giddy and I can even sometimes be found pressing my nose against the glass windows and squealing "ooh look, they've got a Gaggia" to no one in particular. Sad, but true.

My older brother, Robin, the other half of the Dos Hermanos blogging crew, is even more obsessed and has actually fashioned a spreadsheet to list news of restaurant openings and their current status which he updates regularly from information gleaned from well-protected sources. He can often be found giggling over it into the early hours of the morning. As our own Mr Rayner once commented on our blog, "you boys really do need to get out more".

It may well be sad, but it does mean that when a new restaurant opens, often the first thing they see coming through the door is a pair of middle-aged men who have pored over the website until they can recite the menu verbatim. It also means, unfortunately, that many of our meals are hit and miss affairs as chefs find their way around kitchens and waiting staff around new dining rooms. We write about them just the same, our view being that if their doors are open and they are taking your money they should be as good as they are ever going to be, and that it quickly becomes clear if mistakes are down to teething problems or are signs of more fundamental issues.

Others are a little more generous and, after posting about a particularly disappointing meal recently, I was swamped with emails from people complaining that I had been unfair to a restaurant that had only been open a matter of hours. It was only a meal at a burger bar, but their view was that all restaurants need time to bed in before judgement should be passed upon them.

In response to views like this many new restaurants now offer 'soft opening' periods where as much as 50% of the cost of the food is deducted from the bill. It's much the same principle as West End theatres offering preview nights where you may pay a cut rate for tickets but might also possibly see a theatrical dame or Hollywood star fall into the orchestra pit. It strikes me as a fair compromise for the restaurants to acknowledge, by way of a discount to their customers, that a meal taken in the first few days may not be the same meal that will be served when everyone in the team has a few weeks under their belts.

The burger bar in question was not offering such a deal and it strikes me as disingenuous for anyone to complain about unfavourable feedback for meals when full whack is being charged not only to regular restaurant goers, but also to people who may be stretching their budget for an occasional treat. I should point out that this particular restaurant did not complain, took it on the chin and even posted a constructive response on Twitter.

Some restaurant critics share our tougher stance, as Jay Rayner puts it: "If you know they are on soft opening it's a don't go, but if it's full price you do. Simple as that."

While others, like Metro's mysterious Marina O'Loughlin, take a more sympathetic view, explaining "I like to see what [a] restaurant's real personality, clientele, rhythm are. Can't tell that from a room full of critics, bloggers and anxiety-drenched staff ... My brief is still 'new', but I always try and give it at least a few weeks."

Whatever the opposing viewpoints, the two Majumdar brothers will still be through the door of many restaurants as soon as they open. That's just what we do. But, does that mean we deserve what's coming to us for expecting too much of a new place? Should all new restaurants look to have soft openings as best practice or do those who offer bad meals and service at full price deserve to perish in the first round of reviews?

About this article

Soft openings, hard lines

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 05.00 EST on Tuesday 23 February 2010.
It was last modified at 15.11 EDT on Wednesday 11 June 2014.
It was first published at 04.47 EST on Tuesday 23 February 2010.